Recent viewings

[trekgeezer]

Men in War (1957) - It's early in the Korean War and Lt. Benson's (Robert Ryan) platoon has been hit by mortars or artillery. Their truck is destroyed, one of his men has been knifed overnight by the enemy, they're behind enemy lines, and they can't raise their regiment on the radio. They've decided  to abandon the truck and hoof it to where the rest of their regiment is when they see two men in a jeep. They stop them and find Sgt Montana (Aldo Ray) and a badly shell-shocked Colonel.

Benson forces Montana to give them the jeep to haul the extra ammo and other gear from the truck. Slowly Benson and Montana form an alliance to get the men across the enemy lines.

This is a very psychological war movie that I never remember seeing. It is a very strange little movie directed by Anthony Mann who is best known for a directing string of Westerns starring Jimmy Stewart (Winchester 73, Bend in the River, The Naked Spur, and The Far Country among others).

Look for a lot of young actors like Vic Morrow, Nehemiah Persoff, James Edwards, Philip Pine, and L.Q. Jones. There is some battle action at the end, but most of the movie is about the psychological toll the trek takes on these men. It's very much worth a watch.

I've noticed that the war movies of the 50's started portraying war in a more realistic manner than the propoganda themed WWII movies made in the 40's. They certainly emphasized tension between the men a lot more.


Shallow Grave (1994) - A neat little thriller directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days) starring Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston, and Kerry Fox as residents of  a four bedroom flat looking for a new flatmate. The first few minutes are taken up with the three doing funny interviews with the potential roommates.

They do get someone who fits the bill and he moves in. A few days later they notice they haven't seen the new fellow since he moved in. They finally break into his room and find him naked and dead. McGregor starts searching through his stuff and finds a suitcase filled with money. Of course temptation sets in and they make plans to keep the money and dispose of the body. Things as they have a tendency to with this kind of plot go bad from this point on.

I really liked this movie and really don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it. The director and all the actors  do a great job. I particularly liked Eccleston's performance as he slowly looses his grip on sanity because of  the horrific things he's done.

I've noticed that UK directors have a knack for making brutality very realistic. There are a couple of torture scenes which ,although not terribly gory, are mighty disturbing.

I watched this on IFC and at the beginning I almost changed the channel during the goofy roommate interviews, but I stuck with because it was rated TV-MA for language, graphic violence, and nudity. I figured there must be more to it and I was very glad I didn't hit the remote.


X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) - Warren Worthington II (father of the mutant Angel) discovers a cure for the mutant gene which causes Magneto and his brotherhood of mutants to go to war.

In my opinion Brett Ratner did a great job putting this together considering the constraints the studio put on the making of the film (mainly the rushed opening date). For a movie that went through so many hands this stands up to the other two quite well. Its definitely worth the ticket price (especially if like me, you go to the first matinee).


Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead in Denver (1995) - Any movie named after a Warren Zevon song has to have something going for it and this is yet another good movie I've caught on IFC the last couple of weeks.

Jimmy "The Saint" (Andy Garcia) is wise guy gone straight who is forced to go to loan sharks to keep his "Advice from the Afterlife" video business going. His paper gets bought by local quadraplegic crime boss Christopher Walken who will forgive Jimmy's debt if he scares away the new boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend.

Jimmy assembles a team consisting of Pieces (Christopher Lloyd), Franchise (William Forsythe), Easy Wind (Bill Nunn), and Critical Bill (Treat Williams) to pull off the plan. Well the plan goes south and the five men are proclaimed "buckwheats", which means not only will they be killed, but in a painfully slow and painful manner.

The dialogue and the actors are the best part of this movie. Treat Williams does a standout job in the "against type" role of deranged Critical Bill and Walken is at he scariest as "The Man with the Plan". Steve Buscemi also shows up as the sadistic hitman Mr. Shh.

I'm sure a lot of folks here have seen the movie, but if you haven't you need to.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Shallow Grave is probably my favorite of all of Danny Boyle's work.  It starts off as a light comedy, shifts into a bit of a dark comedy and then takes another turn as a dark thriller within it's last third.  The best scene of the whole film for me is where they are in the department store trying to figure out which tools to buy to use on the body.  Genius.

Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead - A buddy of mine bought this one years ago on VHS and didn't care for it so he gave it to me.  Quite a good film.  I haven't watched it in quite some time, but I remember liking it quite a bit.  Walken gives a great performance, and is fairly creepy in his wheelchair.  I might have to pick up this one on DVD soon.